This morning was a 5:15 am arrival time at Footworks for 12 miles. The air was already hot and humid enough to swim in it until a small downpour showed up around two miles in and briefly made South Florida feel less hostile.

The run itself was mostly uneventful, which is probably exactly what I need right now. The usual collection of minor stress aches, and no major complaints from the parts of me that I’ve been worried about from earlier in the year. I iced down everything afterwards–something I never used to do, but now understand at my age, this is reality for me.

I also finally got a photo with Ms. Laurie “The Queen,” who is owner of the store, before the run. FootWorks is where I started running two years ago, and it’s changed my life in material ways. The Queen deserves some glory for that.

Twelve miles was the assignment. Garmin got 11.48 due to the training manager pulling me aside as the group was taking off and my having to take shortcut to catch up. The GPT analysis from my Garmin data was the following: “nearly 11½ miles / 145 minutes / avg HR 134 / no cardiovascular blow-up. That is real marathon-base work.”

After being detrained the past few months and worrying if I even had a chance at pulling off Philly, we’re making solid, measured progress in this relaunch.

Support the run for Parkinson’s: I’m running the 2026 Philadelphia Marathon as a Parkinson’s Champion. If you’d like to support the journey, you can donate through my Parkinson’s Foundation fundraising page.